The early morning fire Sept. 15 that destroyed much of the Marine Bar building was started by an “electric heating element” underneath the building, according to a preliminary investigation two days later by the state fire marshal’s office.
“The fire is being classified as an accident,” Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Department of Public Safety, said Sept. 18.
McDaniel described the heating element as similar to heat tape, used to prevent exposed pipes from freezing. The 60-year-old building is on pilings, with its back to the downtown Inner Harbor.
Personnel from the fire marshal’s office were in Wrangell on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 16-17, to investigate the cause of the fire.
Rolland Wimberley, the business and building owner, said Sunday that no decision had been made whether to rebuild. “I’m sure we’ll do something,” he said. But first, “the insurance investigator needs to do their thing.”
No injuries were reported, and firefighters succeeded in keeping the flames contained to the Marine Bar, said Aaron Powell, Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department administrator. “We’re very lucky that there wasn’t any wind that night,” or the fire might have spread to nearby structures, he said.
The first trucks arrived on the scene shortly after 3 a.m. Almost 30 firefighters and borough employees worked the blaze and helped with the response, according to a statement issued by the borough manager on Sept. 17.
By mid-morning, much of the roof had collapsed. The damage was extensive to the building structure and its interior. Wimberley said it appears the building is a total loss.
About 13 employees worked at the bar and restaurant, he said.
Rodney Natt, a tenant in the building, called in the fire. “I had woken up in the middle of the night,” about 2:30 a.m., Natt said in an interview on Sept. 18. He tried to go back to sleep but heard “popping and crackling.”
He opened the door to the wooden walkway on the harbor side of the building and saw thick smoke. “I grabbed my phone and ran out. That’s all I could do. It happened so fast,” he said, adding that he didn’t stop to put on shoes.
He said he lost everything in the fire, including 17 years of his music on hard drives — rap and DJ sessions. “All my life’s work is gone.”
